December Misery Covid-Style

Now you can pick up Covid-19 tests at a nearby MTR station

It looks like the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays are going to be really low-key this year after infectious disease experts warned the current fourth wave has yet to peak -- if people gather for festivities later this month then cases could surge.

Today 78 cases were reported.

Dr Ho Pak-leung, head of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Infection, said it was "very worrying" to see an increasing number of untraceable cases, numerous local infections, and various clusters involving different venues.

Dr Ho says it's hard to control virus by Dec 31

He warned as temperatures drop, the situation could get worse and problems could rise if people flout social-distancing measures by gathering for Christmas.

"It's basically impossible to put the fourth wave under control by the end of the year," Ho said.

How depressing, not just for the city, which has cancelled the fireworks display, but also for hotels and restaurants, who can probably expect the current measures of two to a table to continues until at least the end of the year.

Meanwhile, getting tested for the coronavirus got easier, well sort of, with testing kits distributed in vending machines in 10 MTR stations.  They are: North Point, Wong Chuk Hang, Kowloon, Kwai Fong, Tsing Yi, Ngau Tau Kok, Tiu Keng Leng, Tai Wai, Tai Po Market, and Siu Hong.

People can use their Octopus card to get free test

The kits are free and people can get them by using their Octopus card, and then scan the QR code to find out where they can send the specimen bottles back to get test results. 

While each station distributes about 1,000 kits per day, the first day, by 11.30am over 6,500 kits were distributed and the machines ran out of kits very quickly, except for the machine at Wong Chuk Hang.

Are these people stocking up on free kits to use whenever they feel somewhat ill? Or are people trying to collect as many test kits as possible for hoarding? It's really bizarre. 

Let's see how many of these tests are actually returned with specimens in them...

Financial Groups Back Protesters

Tonight in Tsim Sha Tsui the police try to contain protesters in the area

Yesterday Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet Ngor and Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po tried to blame the economic slowdown in Hong Kong on the protesters.

However, two groups in the financial industry, one for banking the other finance, with members totaling 9,622 professionals issued a statement today refuting what Lam and Chan said.

Yesterday Carrie Lam with Paul Chan (left)

"Earlier this week at a press conference, Financial Secretary Mr. Paul Chan warned that Extradition Bill protests would hit [the] Hong Kong economy. The government's statement is misleading and placing the blame on protesters is irresponsible and unacceptable.

"Hong Kong's economy has already shown signs of a slowdown in the first quarter of this year whereas the first demonstration began in the late second quarter," the statement continues. "Recently, the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy of the University of Hong Kong and Wang Chunxin, senior economic researcher of Bank of China Hong Kong, have lowered Hong Kong's annual GDP forecast to 1.7 percent - 1.8 percent, mainly due to the US-China trade war.

"The report did not mention any impact caused by the protests. However, the Government's continued selective disregard of the law, abuse use of institutional violence, and negative sentiment by the international investment community will be [the] real reasons for any economic deterioration down the road."

Peaceful protests in Tai Po this afternoon

The statement continues to say that the five demands of the protesters should be met for the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and that the government needs to respond quickly.

"Allegations of 'foreign forces' meddling in recent events with no actual supporting evidence is unhelpful. On that basis, society and various industry sectors demand that a neutral and recognized independent investigation committee to be set up to uncover the truth and responsible parties, so that Hong Kong can return to the right track as soon as possible."

It's interesting these two financial groups have made a very forceful statement condemning the government for placing the blame squarely on the protesters "in an attempt to deceive the public from its mistakes and divisive statements".

Two financial groups condemn the government's inactions

Wonder how Lam and co will respond to this damning indictment...

Meanwhile this evening more battles erupted between the protesters and police in Tai Po, Sha Tin, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Ngau Tau Kok.

My relatives and I watched the rising tensions between the police and protesters on Nathan Road in the shopping area of Tsim Sha Tsui. Some police were surrounded after they had arrested a young woman.

The crowd grew as people who were hanging out in the area, just finished dinner or a movie came out to see what was going on. Many turned on the lights on their smartphones to shine back at the police.

A young woman arrested in Tsim Sha Tsui, protesters angry

Eventually the officers had to retreat back to their police station nearby but not without lobbing a few canisters of tear gas for good measure.

Tomorrow is another day...

Government Pats its own Back

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam to receive Hong Kong's highest honour

On the eve of the 19th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, the government unveiled its list of awards, lauding those who have made significant contributions to the city.

It was quite surprising to see the list stacked with government officials, led by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor being awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest accolade possible.

Some of her colleagues receive the Gold Bauhinia Star, like Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok, Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment, and Paul Chan Mo-po, Secretary for Development.

What has Paul Chan done to merit a Gold Bauhinia Star?

One can see why Lam was given the award for her tireless efforts in trying to be the face of the Leung Chun-ying administration, particularly during the Occupy protests and last year when the government was pushing through electoral reform and failed. She had to put a brave face forward, which is professional of her, but at what cost morally?

What have Wong and Chan done lately that merit recognition for their work?

Pollution, waste and recycling issues have hardly been tackled, with the government timidly implementing waste disposal costs. Perhaps Wong will say these efforts need the cooperation of other departments, but his should be leading and pushing the cause with a goal of making Hong Kong a more efficient and cleaner city when it comes to dealing with waste and pollution.

Meanwhile Chan's record is hardly stellar, embroiled in several scandals mostly involving real estate. He and his wife were found to have property that had subdivided flats, and later it was reported his family had land in the New Territories where the government had planned to develop, thus possibly resulting in a windfall. He was accused of conflict of interest and did not fully disclose all his assets.

We vote for Chan Cheuk-ming to get formal recognition

What has he done to be awarded a Gold Bauhinia medal?

On the other hand, it goes without saying that the two firemen who lost their lives in the Ngau Tau Kok fire over a week ago, Thomas Cheung and Samuel Hui Chi-kit should be recognized posthumously with gold medals for bravery.

While this honour is a token that will not bring Hui and Cheung back to their families, it is a small gesture Hong Kong can do to show the community's gratitude towards them.

Other people recognized on the list seem to be pro-establishment figures, like Starry Lee Wai-king, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, her colleague Tam Yiu-chung, and Liu Changle, chairman and CEO of Phoenix Television.

And for Father Franco Mella in helping the disadvantaged

How about highlighting people who are fostering community in the city, helping others in selfless ways, like restaurant owner Chan Cheuk-ming or Ming gor, who feeds the poor in Sham Shui Po, or Father Franco Mella, an Italian priest who came to Hong Kong in 1974 and learned Cantonese and has worked hard to help the disadvantaged.

To me, these people should be receiving the city's highest honours. But perhaps the government is perched too high on the pedestal to see the city's true gems.

Black Friday -- Brexit and Blaze

Prime Minister David Cameron announces his resignation after Brexit result

At noon I was in complete shock over the Brexit results, but I was not the only one. Many British colleagues were in disbelief that their fellow countrymen had opted out of the European Union.

Some moaned they were deeply ashamed of being British, while others were outraged their parents -- first generation immigrants -- had voted Brexit.

Someone on Twitter posted that now we'd see Boris Johnson become the next prime minister, and Donald Trump the next president.

Politician Boris Johnson on one of his bad hair days...

Both of them have bad hair.

Last weekend at the gym, I watched part of a BBC documentary about why people were choosing for or against Brexit.

Basically many people living outside of London were for Brexit, as they felt overwhelmed by the amount of immigration into the country and felt staying would lead to even more people coming in, taking jobs and taking advantage of education and health services.

The BBC found education-wise, the children did quite well academically because their parents felt it was a priority for the next generation to integrate into the community.

However, in terms of accessing health care, one doctor told of how she saw many cases of families living together under one roof, each family living in one room of a home, and so illnesses were easily passed around.

Counting votes in the Brexit referendum

They also didn't have much money to spend on housing, so their usually rented low-quality homes that were more prone to mould, which resulted in respiratory diseases.

Some people were concerned more immigrants would push salaries lower, making profit margins even smaller, while others said some sectors like seniors' homes were in dire need of immigrant labour because educated young people were not interested in looking after old people.

Within families, couples are split down the middle whether to stay or go, but mostly it's a younger generation/older generation divide. While 64 percent of young people were for staying in the EU, 58 percent of seniors preferred Brexit, and one wonders if perhaps the population of older people outnumbered the younger ones, which led to today's result.

The deadly fire in Ngau Tau Kok has claimed two lives

The other sad story in Hong Kong, is that a fire continues to rage in Ngau Tau Kok, and firefighters still cannot control the blaze that's been going on since Tuesday at 11am.

It erupted in an old industrial building where a few floors have been converted into a mini storage facility. According to firefighters there are 200 lockers per floor, basically subdivided rooms separated by metal sheeting.

The challenge is that firefighters do not know what is in each of the lockers and have had to try to open each one. Today they showed pictures of what they saw in the building, and reported seeing flames in different colours, which indicated they were burning at different temperatures due to different materials.

There were also concerns that hawker stall equipment was stored here as well, some maybe storing gas tanks, but this has not been confirmed yet.

Initial reports were that firefighters fought with their commanders on how the fire should be contained, and that the order to be sent into the building to try to contain the blaze from inside may have caused the first firefighter, Thomas Cheung to lose his life. The second died last night, Samuel Hui Chi-kit, succumbing to his injuries. Two others were also injured.

Firefighters are exhausted trying to battle the blaze

Many questions need to be answered, including why did industrial buildings built before 1973 not have to be retrofitted with fire sprinklers? And why aren't there regulations for how mini storage facilities do business? Shouldn't there be rules on what can and cannot be stored? And what about insurance?

A lot of people have lost their treasured belongings that they can never get back. But at the same time, two lives were lost trying to fight this fire that still continues to consume the contents inside.

The pollution levels in the area are pretty bad too, affecting residents who may opt to be evacuated from there temporarily.

We can only hope the firefighters can finally contain the fire and put it out. And then we can begin to ask why it happened and what can be learned from this.

As for Brexit, it will take two years for the reality to set in.

How can there be so many things going wrong these days?